Puppet Master
by Doctor-Lucky
Summary: Chell lives for more than a year after being released, but food concerns force her to come back, and she discovers a secret in the facility kept by someone other than GLaDOS.
1. Part 1: Outside Aperture

_Part 1: Outside_

The sound tore through the forest again - a sharp _crack_, followed by a solid _thud_ as the pieces of wood hit the ground. It had been going on for a few hours with only momentary pauses, and the nearby animals had long since either fled or grown accustomed. A sizable stack of firewood had already accumulated, and the lone figure in the clearing showed no signs of stopping, despite her obvious fatigue. Winter was close, and if Chell didn't manage to collect enough firewood, she would freeze to death. She had already survived one winter, barely, but it had only been through luck. She hadn't prepared appropriately, and if it hadn't been particularly mild for the season, she would already have died. She gritted her teeth and got back to work.

_I. Am. Not. Going. To. Survive. That. Place. Only. To. Die. NOW!_ she thought, a swing of her axe punctuating each word. She had almost run out of trees soft enough to cut - her axe was a simple thing of stone, with one of her undershirts lashing the blade to the wood, and it was barely sturdy enough to be usable on the softest trees she'd found. She had never been any good at woods-craft - a city girl from Portland, her life before Aperture had consisted mostly of school and a couple of years as a barista. When the company had hired her, she thought it was a dream come true - who wouldn't? One of the most famous scientific research and engineering companies specifically asking her to work for them? Chell, with just a Master's in Physics from an unknown university and no work experience? It was tremendous, impossible, though having a father who had worked there before he died must have helped. She had accepted, of course, and in so doing begun what was, for the first couple of months, the most amazing time of her life.

It started out wonderfully. She got to work alongside some of the top minds in the world on designing things that defied most of the fundamental laws she'd learned about and studied in her education. Aperture was past its prime, though, and it showed. Too much money had been spent on ridiculous things, and their safety testing and marketing departments were laughable. She lost her emotional attachment to the company quickly, but she'd signed a four-year contract with them and had to continue. By her first Christmas with the company, four months after she signed on, she could hardly stand to be inside anymore. Most of her coworkers were still sane, despite the irrational and dangerous policies of the company, and one of them, especially, had helped her through some tough spots when she was getting claustrophobic. Doug was one of her best friends in the facility, and they'd spent several nights talking when they should have been sleeping - the topic didn't seem to matter, as long as they were together. Caroline had been a stern taskmistress, though she seemed pleased as long as the test results were gathered.

She thought back on pivotal day of her time working there – Christmas Eve.

_The owner of the facility, Mr. Johnson, was growing more erratic, even in the few months she'd been there. There were rumors that he was running out of test subjects, and another of her friends, Charles Wheatley, had told her a few days previously that Johnson was planning to make an announcement on Christmas Eve, and that he was terrified of what it might be. She'd tried to keep his spirits up and laughed off his concerns at the time, but she had felt more than a twinge of unease herself. Doug was also worried - he'd been there for longer than either of them, and he was involved in some sort of secret project he couldn't tell them about. She'd pressed him on it, once, but he seemed so anguished about the conflict that she'd dropped it. She'd always wanted to know since he first let slip that it was classified, and she was used to getting her way, but she cared too much for him to push hard enough to get him to talk. She'd thought he would tell her when he was ready._

_At the dinner that evening, Johnson stood up in the middle of the soup course and made an announcement:_

_"Oh, I almost forgot. Please, save the cheering until later – we'll have plenty of time after I finish speaking." He cleared his throat. "Due to a shortage of willing or obtainable test subjects, all Aperture Science employees are required to begin testing so science can continue. I know, I know, we've had regulations before that said you weren't allowed, but fear not: You now aren't allowed NOT to test! You finally get to see firsthand what all that science you've been doing is all about. I know some of you may complain about how you're not worthy of this great honor, but I assure you, I truly believe that each and every one of you will make an excellent test subject. You'll be analyzing your own results for the most part, but Caroline will step in to handle the results if, for some reason, you find yourself exploded, imploded, dangerously emaciated, or otherwise unable to do the science yourself._

_"Uhh... One more announcement. I'm dying," he said bluntly, and Chell let out a small gasp before she could regain control of her mouth. "You know that new gel we've been testing? The third dieting gel, with the moon-rocks? Turns out that it is not, in fact, useful for dieting. Apparently the ground-up moon-rock is deadly poison, at least with the gel compound there too. So, I tasked the best and brightest of you with doing something about it._

_"I should have been thinking about this years ago, but I just hadn't thought of it. We're going to put people in robots!" His smile had passed manic and was trending towards the insane. "You are going to invent a device to extract my brain and make a robot out of it. If we live forever, testing never stops, and that's what science is all about, right? Never letting little things like 'mortality' or 'regulations' or 'common sense' interfere with good, old-fashioned testing._

_"Anyway, eat well tonight, Aperture Science personnel! Testing begins tomorrow, eight o' clock sharp. Your testing assignments will be delivered by morning." Cave sat down and resumed eating, apparently oblivious of the almost-palpable fear in the room. Most of the 'scientists' here had been testing for years. They knew what would happen if they were actually required to go through with their own tests. Chell looked around the room for her friends. Doug had sat by her and was staring fixedly at his soup, but Charles had apparently disappeared while Johnson was talking. A moment later, she heard the facility klaxon blare – a common occurrence, she had learned after it happened the fifth time in her first four days, but a significant one this time. The building had gone into total lockdown. Nobody was allowed to enter or leave until it was lifted._

_She was trapped. She and Doug were stuck there for months, forced to test with the ASHPD – traditionally one of the most dangerous areas. She and Doug found them fairly simple to complete - partially because they weren't in the control groups, but they both seemed to be skilled at solving the tests safely, though they had very different methods. The number of times they brushed with death during that time was nearly uncountable, but Cave Johnson died just as the robotic upload system was completed, leaving Caroline as the head of the company. Chell had no illusions that the testing policies would change, or that the lockdown would be lifted. It had been painfully obvious to everyone in the facility that Caroline was in love with Johnson, but nothing ever came of it. It did mean, though, that she would never reverse his last policy change, even if she had otherwise wanted to._

_Just a few days after Johnson's death, Caroline was uploaded into the new GLaDOS body, Doug vanished into the unmonitored maintenance system, and Chell was stored 'for more advanced testing'._

She lifted her axe again and nearly drove it into the soil before realizing she was out of wood to cut. She'd been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she had noticed neither that it had gotten dark nor that she'd bucked nearly an entire tree. She sighed and dropped her axe wearily, nearly collapsing as she sat down on the stump she'd left. She rubbed her eyes, then forced herself back to her feet and set off back towards the crude shelter she'd been living in since a flood had taken out the little cabin she'd found after her escape.

She hadn't thought about those early days for nearly a year, but for some reason they were on her mind. Something was bugging her, but she hadn't quite placed it by the time she got back home, so she decided to let it be and sleep on it. That night, she had vivid dreams about her time spent testing alone. It had only taken her a few days to complete all of the remaining official test chambers after she'd been woken up by Caroline, but she'd spent weeks after that going through the bowels of the facility, hunting down a way out, In the end, there only seemed to be one option: destroy the GLaDOS body and engage the artificial gravity generators to make it out through the ceiling. It seemed like Aperture had been dedicated to finding every law in physics and finding a way to break it, and the horrifying part is that they had been, for the most part, successful.

She still didn't know how long she'd been frozen before the Caroline core had brought her out to test her, but she had the feeling that many, many years had passed. When she'd managed to defeat the murderous AI the first time, she thought she had escaped, but she'd taken so many injuries while going through the tests and maintenance systems that she wasn't able to resist the Party Escort Associate when it came for her. When she next woke, she had been shocked to hear Charles's voice coming from outside her relaxation vault. She had thought he'd made it out before the lockdown hit, but when she threw open the door to see only a Personality Core, she realized what had happened. She still trusted the little core implicitly; even though he obviously possessed none of Charles's brilliance, Wheatley seemed to retain the loyalty and wariness of the software engineer he'd once been, both of which were valuable to Chell. His ability to interface with Aperture Science technology came in handy several times, but when the final showdown with GLaDOS came and Wheatley was put in charge of the facility, his own personality was nearly-completely overridden by that of the GLaDOS body.

The Caroline core helped her get back to GLaDOS and put her back in the body, but even after all that she'd suffered under the Wheatley-controlled facility, she knew that it wasn't the core's fault, and if she had been able to hold on to him when Caroline pulled her back in, she would have. Caroline, in GLaDOS, had other ideas, though. Until Chell let him go, Caroline wouldn't pull her back in, but even then loosening her grip was one of the hardest things she'd ever done. When Caroline let her leave despite GLaDOS's influence, she should have been ecstatic, but all she could feel after losing Wheatley was dull surprise. The numbness lasted for weeks after she emerged from the depths of Aperture into the sun, even as she was physically active and searching for civilization.

Her thoughts were still muddled when she woke up, and she lay still for a while to try to clear her head, resting comfortably against her Companion Cube.

There hadn't been anyone left. She didn't have the parts to make a radio outside, and the only two stations available in Aperture were of a catchy tune (which she'd actually quite liked) played on endless repeat and a gibberish message that sounded like it had been recorded from space, also repeated. She had searched for months to no avail for any hint of other people, but she couldn't even find a road. She had eventually returned to a little forest – barely more than a glade – near the entrance to Aperture to make her home when winter started to threaten. There was a river running through it, and she found a cabin that looked like it had been abandoned for at least a few decades on its banks. Despite its obvious age, it gave her hope – at least humans had been around somewhat recently, even if she couldn't find any sign of current habitation.

After barely surviving the winter, she'd set out as soon as the first thaw hit, determined to find other humans. She hadn't succeeded by the time autumn started, and she'd made a hard trek back to her cabin only to find that it had been destroyed in a flood, though thankfully her Companion Cube had been spared. Using the few planks and foundation materials left, she'd set up a little shelter, but it didn't seem like it would be enough for the coming winter. She had just ensured that she'd have enough firewood to keep a fire going constantly, but without closed walls to trap the heat...

That gave her an idea, and her eyes snapped open as she rolled to her feet. Her failure to find civilization meant she'd spent her time unwisely, and without tools, she didn't have enough time to dig out a shelter to help her survive the winter. She began to break down her shelter, collected the materials, then set off towards the innocuous little shed in the wheat field. She wasn't going to go back into Aperture – never that – but she could set up in the hut, so she would at least have walls, and she could put the planks over the elevator shaft to make sure nothing could come up. She hated going near it, but there weren't any other options left. Winter was too close for anything else, and above all else she would survive. She spent most of the day moving her firewood stacks to the shed after blocking off the shaft, and collapsed at the end of the day, exhausted again. She was fit and strong, but carrying heavy burdens many miles still took a toll on her.

For the rest of autumn, she stored up as much food as she could. She harvested the wheat and ground it with river rocks to make flour, hunted geese and deer (which, to her surprise, actually did populate the forest), and caught fish with her hands, which she'd found herself to excel at. A few weeks later, the first cold snap set in, and as she examined her food stocks, she realized that she'd have to find some way to supplement them if she were going to survive until spring. Not much was available during the winter, though – the river would freeze over, the geese would already have already migrated past, and there wouldn't be any wheat left to harvest. She could try to limit how much she ate, but in the middle of winter, she needed all the energy she could get. She wasn't much prone to physical outbursts, but she kicked one of the planks over the elevator shaft as she was pacing, her long-fall boots ensuring that no harm came to her feet.

_I guess I could try to find some potatoes,_ she thought with a smile. She hadn't been able to eat one since the Caroline core had been stuck in a potato battery, but she vaguely remembered a compound she'd developed for a science project when she was nine. Her father had helped – or, if she were entirely honest, done most of the work – but she had gotten the idea in the first place, and she thought she might be able to recreate it if she had access to a chemical repository. The basic concept was very Aperture-esque, in that it seemed nearly insane. She had thought that, by hooking a potato battery up to a Tesla coil (for extremely high voltages) and coating the whole contraption in Miracle-Gro, she'd make the potato's voltage match the Tesla coil's, while the fertilizer would make the size increase proportionately. It was a crazy idea, but her father's eyes had lit up and he'd vanished for days in his lab. When he came out, he gave her a vial of what he called Super-Miracle-Gro, then told her to do just what she'd thought of. When she gave her presentation at the Aperture Science 'Bring Your Daughter and her Science Project to Work Day' science fair, it actually _worked_ – something about the chemical made the process function like she'd imagined, and the potato grew so quickly and rampantly that it burst through the ceiling. She had first met Cave Johnson there, when he was called down to decide what to do with the 800-pound potato. He'd decided to have the entire room sealed to memorialize the event, though she later learned that he did that with everything he found interesting. She had demanded to learn the formula after that, and she thought she still had it memorized – it wasn't an event that one would forget.

As she considered her options, as sick as the thoughts made her, she realized that if she ran out of food, the only path she could take was down the elevator shaft. She'd put it off as long as she could, look for any alternative, but she forced herself to consider it. Caroline's reception was sure to be... chilly, to say the least. At best, the AI would just kick her back out. If she tried to make her test again, though, or thought Chell had only come back to kill her, things could get ugly. _Still, at least GLaDOS usually tried to kill me quickly, _she thought, _so it'd be better than freezing to death. _She busied herself with storing the food rather than thinking of precisely what GLaDOS would do to her if she returned. With luck, she wouldn't have to deal with the facility at all, and the winter would be mild again.

The first blizzard hit three days later while she was out hunting. She'd been under the cover of the trees, paying attention to a small herd of deer rather than the sky, and her negligence was punished by a sudden blast of chilly air and a flurry of snowflakes. The herd moved jerkily to the edge of the treeline and huddled together against the cold, and Chell had no choice but to return. It would take too long to make it back while burdened - the blizzards here were fierce, as she learned last winter. She tucked her hands inside her sleeves and started jogging back the way she had come, startling the deer at her sudden movement. The snow was sticking, but she was still able to find her way back - she'd been making that trek irregularly for more than a month, and the snow hadn't piled up enough to obscure the landmarks yet.

She didn't have long, though. This was a full-on blizzard, and she'd been caught unprepared again. She was shivering by the time she stumbled through the door- the _open_ door? She looked down at the doorway and saw large, swept tracks where her stored deer had been dragged out, noting the pawprints with nearly-clinical detachment. _I can't hunt the wolves in the blizzard, and they'll have either hidden or finished the deer by the time it blows over, even if I could find them. There is certainly not enough food without the deer, and I have no way to get more._ She looked back at the planks covering the elevator shaft for a moment, then kicked them aside, grabbed her axe, tucked her Companion Cube under her arm, and leapt into the darkness.


	2. Part 2: The Part Where He Tells You

**Part 2:**

She fell past the windows where Caroline had the turrets singing to her on her way out - it still felt surreal - at breakneck speeds. She'd gotten unused to long falls in her time outside, but after about a minute of freefall it started to feel natural again. She was terrified, but that was buried. Her confidence was coming back as well - she _knew _this place, knew what she should do to survive. There were too many variables outside, too much to take care of all alone. At least there was always a path in Aperture, always a way to complete the test, however difficult and unfair it was.

As she approached GLaDOS's level, she mentally prepared herself to deal with the AI. Hopefully GLaDOS hadn't had the time to corrupt Caroline much, but she had to plan for the worst. Her Companion Cube could take turret fire - she had to assume that the production facilities had been fixed - but without a portal gun, she didn't have much of a way to combat GLaDOS. She tightened her grip on her axe as the top of the elevator came into view, and braced her legs for impact.

She broke the elevator's moorings when she hit, and with a horrific, screeching crash, it began to fall farther down the shaft. Chell saw GLaDOS turn suddenly at the sound, but she didn't think that the AI had gotten enough time to get a good look at her - not that there could be much doubt as to who would be entering this way. She just hoped that GLaDOS wouldn't have many defenses at the bottom of the shaft. As she continued to hurtle down the shaft, lights began to flick on along the sides, and a familiar dry voice came on, echoing off the rounded walls.

"I thought I had been clear. I thought that my message was simple. I thought that you'd have the intelligence to _stay away._ You are apparently even more of a moron than that core you put in my body, and I wish I could say that I was surprised, but you have a history of stupid, dangerous, lunatic acts. I've been waiting for you, you know. I built robots to do some testing, pass the time, but it wasn't _real_ science. I could rebuild them anytime I wanted, and they knew it. You are irreplaceable, though. I mean it. Your parents vowed to never have any more kids after what a failure you were.

"I must say I am surprised about one thing, though. Not many people could survive that long outside and actually _gain _weight. That elevator was built to withstand another elevator full of cargo dropping from the surface. It _has _withstood another elevator full of cargo dropping from the top, in fact. Twice. So what you did is actually pretty impressive, when you think about it." Chell felt a small smile form. GLaDOS was nothing if not consistent.

"You know, I had almost given up. You did survive for quite a while. I had to wake up the other humans for testing. You know, the ones you left behind when you ran from me. I still have a few left, actually, but it turns out that most of them aren't any good at testing, when it comes right down to it. I'd almost forgotten how much most humans _talk._ It's all they did! I had to put turrets behind them to get them to even start testing, and even then none of them could get past test chamber 08. I had to replace the Aperture Science Bathing Discouragement Fluid nineteen times in the week that it took me to get through the subjects, and each room full is rated for discouraging fifty bathers! I am actually glad that you're back. I know why you came back, by the way. You're like me. Life without testing isn't really a life worth living, is it? That's why I made sure to make _plenty_ of tests for you. You'll need to get back up here to continue the science, though. I'll even help you. Just stay still when you get to the bottom, and I'll have an Excursion Funnel rerouted shortly. You know what position to assume."

Chell began sprinting as soon as she hit the flattened elevator at the bottom of the shaft. She didn't want to irritate GLaDOS any more than necessary, but there were many, many things she would rather do than go through another round of tests. If her experience with GLaDOS so far were any indication, her next set of tests would be deadlier still. The impact of the elevator had blown out one of the walls, leaving an opening for Chell. She leapt through it and almost slipped off of the railing on the other side, barely catching herself as her axe tumbled down into the acid pools below. The surge of fear gave her strength, and she hauled herself back onto the catwalk and took a moment to look around.

She was in Old Aperture again. The huge geodesic spheres vanished into the gloom of the cavern, which stretched farther than she could see through the hazy mist from the acid. She began to walk carefully along the steel path, glancing back to make sure nothing was following her. She couldn't risk running - the facility was not well maintained this far down, and some of the catwalks had rusted. She'd nearly fallen with a crumbling rail last time she had been down here, unwary because of Aperture's otherwise-sturdy architecture, and had only survived because of the stabilization prongs on the end of the portal gun, which she'd hooked through the grilled floor.

As she progressed, she began to pick up her pace. GLaDOS would be chasing her down, she was sure - the AI had proven to be paranoid of Chell's presence in her facility. Everything seemed sturdy here, and as she began to run, her steps didn't even rock the catwalk. She heard a deep thrumming from the elevator shaft, and then a childlike voice that made her heart leap to her throat.

"Is anyone there?"

She barely had time to duck behind her Companion Cube as the laser sight swept over the narrow pathway, but she managed it before the turret saw her. As she huddled against the far side, breathing heavily, her hand involuntarily pressed against her left side - the last place she'd gotten shot, and her worst injury from the turrets. That wound should have been fatal, but after she'd passed out after dragging herself out of the line of fire, she'd woken up with bandages on and a jar of antibacterial salve next to her in a room behind some panels. She didn't know who had helped her, since everyone else in the facility had seemed to be dead, but they'd done a good job. The scar was still rough under her fingers, but it had healed well. She risked a glance over the edge of her cube.

There were five turrets arrayed outside the hole now, and a robot was continuing to place them. She hadn't seen this kind of machine before - it carried eight turrets in banks along its sides, and it had a single arm to place them. It had four thick legs that gave it excellent stability, and it seemed well-armored. She ducked back behind her cube as the turrets started to notice her.

"We don't have to do it this way, you know. I'll give you another chance. We can take you to your party now. Just lay down and stay still, and the science we can do together will be remembered forever. You want that. You must - your body will fail in sixty-odd years and nobody will remember you unless it's through science, done right here." GLaDOS's voice was soft, her tone persuasive, but Chell wasn't taken in. She grabbed the corners of her cube and began to slide it along the metal behind her, screeching, as she crawled forward.

"No? Still as selfish as ever, then. Pity - the science would have been beautiful. You know, as stupid as that moron was, he did have one good idea," she said, her tone malicious, "though of course he had no idea how to do it right."

Chell could hear rhythmic clanks behind her - footsteps? She sped up her pace, though the metal was biting into her arms. Her fears were confirmed a moment later.

"Turrets with legs. I'm actually quite proud of the design. I used some of your test results when building it. I'm sure that I can get all kinds of useful ideas from your review of their effectiveness." Chell was nearly ready to make a break for it when she came parallel to a metal door labeled 'EMPLOYEES ONLY'. She swiveled and smashed her legs against the handle, breaking it off, then kicked again. As the door burst open, she crawled inside, pulling her cube after her. A new voice came from where the clanking was.

"Please slow down! Are you there? Don't leave me!" The voice was that of a young boy, and she nearly turned before she realized that it was GLaDOS's new toy. She rose quickly and grabbed her Companion Cube, then began to run before stopping abruptly. There was nowhere to run to - she was in a closed storage room. There was a pneumatic tube in the corner and a pile of Weighted Storage Cubes underneath it, and several large boxes stacked around in various places, but there was no door out. She spun around to face the door just as the new robot came level with her and turned.

It was tall and spindly, top-heavy like the other turrets, but fairly solid nonetheless. Its three legs were long and thin, coming to a single spike, but unlike the turrets, they had two points of articulation. Its arms were thick and reinforced, with its left ending in a white cap not unlike the turrets' shielding and its right a portal gun.

"Found you! Can we play again?" Its voice was cheerful and upbeat, but the glossy white plates on its left arm began to reveal a bright blue laser as they opened, which locked on to her. As they continued, Chell could see a twelve-barrel minigun emerge and begin to spin up. She briefly considered trying to run behind the extra crates in the corner, but the walls were portalable - if its AI were designed intelligently at all, and she had a sinking feeling that it had been, it would just put a portal behind her and tear her to shreds. Her only viable option was to stop it from activating fully.

She dashed forwards and threw her Companion Cube at it, knocking it off-balance. Its targeting laser was pointed at the ceiling as its first spray of bullets was released, and Chell had enough time to get into melee range with it. She got a solid hold on its portal gun and, throwing her weight into the motion, ripped the gun from its grasp, though she fell over from the force of it. She immediately placed a portal on the ceiling where it was shooting, then another just behind the robot, and was rewarded by a near-instantaneous electrical arc from its core as its own bullets ripped through its back. Its core light went out and it fell over, the minigun slowly spinning to a halt as it crashed against the wall, and the rest of the robot soon followed.

"... You did not just do that," GLaDOS's voice was flat and dry, but there was a hint of incredulity behind the facade. "I designed them specifically to stop you from doing- well, valuable results anyway. Continue testing."

Chell gripped the portal gun with both hands, breathing heavily. It was a slightly different design than the one she was used to - sleeker, lighter, but not quite shaped correctly for her hand. She could use it, but it might take some time to acclimate. For now, though, she could deal with the turrets and advance. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then spun around the door and fired down the catwalk. She quickly tucked herself back inside as red lasers and a chorus of curious voices inquired as to her whereabouts and existence, then placed the linked portal on the wall beside her. As the wall opened to reveal the backs of the turrets, she grabbed one of the storage cubes and tossed it through.

The turrets went down in sequence as the cube rolled against them and they fell on each other, and Chell closed the portal before a stray bullet from their shutdown program could hit her. She grabbed her Companion Cube with the portal gun's Aperture Science Gravity Confuser Field and peered out cautiously, but her wariness proved to be unnecessary. She stepped back out onto the catwalk, then began to jog away from the elevator. With luck, the area ahead wouldn't be monitored. Most of the rooms in Old Aperture weren't - the testing spheres were, but the office space was generally free of surveillance.

The catwalk ended in five stairs, a concrete platform, and another EMPLOYEES ONLY door, which she kicked open. Again, it was just a storage closet. She turned and fired a portal at the entrance to one of the spheres, then hopped through the floor, her cube in tow. She repeated this trick several more times before she got to a useful level, but the office across from her still had its window intact and there was no surface nearby for her portals. She put a portal on the edge of one of the spheres and its partner down at the second storage room, more than a hundred feet below. Putting her portal gun down carefully, she grabbed her Companion Cube in both hands and cuddled it for a moment before tossing it off the platform she was on. Three seconds passed before it came hurtling out of the portal, and one more before the sound of breaking glass filled her ears. Her cube landed safely inside the office, so she followed it in, sweeping up her portal gun as she leapt. As terrifying as it should have been, she found herself actually enjoying the excitement. Her life outside had been scary and dull - at least here she could get some decent adrenaline going to combat the dread of impending death. She grabbed her cube as she landed, then began to explore the office.

It was cool and well-lit, though several bulbs had burnt out, and the hallway that led to the viewing room she was in stretched several hundred feet, with doors to other offices placed regularly along it. She checked the rooms as she advanced, finding most of them to contain little more than a desk and writing utensils. One was a meeting room, with a large square table and projector, and several more were viewing rooms for other testing spheres. She wandered the facility for a couple of hours before she found what she was looking for – an arrow drawn on the wall in ashes, a message from Doug. He had saved her so many times in her escape that, even if he were still alive to thank, she'd have no idea where to start. She allowed herself a moment of grief for her friend, closing her eyes, then wiped the tear away and followed his directions.

He led her through Old Aperture, taking unmonitored paths through its maintenance systems, but something was odd – he didn't seem to be leading her out, as all of the other paths she'd encountered did, but deeper into the earth. She began to move more cautiously when she saw a management rail running along her path – Wheatley hadn't been the only thing to move along them, and it was a safe bet that GLaDOS was searching for her. She followed Doug's hints for nearly an hour more before she heard a sudden voice come from ahead.

"Is anyone there? Thank God, I was beginning to think there was nobody else left." The voice was deep, male, and gruff – Cave Johnson. Chell relaxed for a moment, then realized what he'd said – present tense? This wasn't pre-recorded.

"Come on, come over here. I need some help. It's not easy to believe, I know, but it does occasionally happen. To help convince you, I have kind of a long story: I was made into an immortal robot, put inside this cube, and then forgotten about, and I've been here for- Well, I don't think the clock in here counts that high. Okay, not that long a story. Point is, I want your hands for something. I need you to kill me. Do you have any idea of what it's like to be stuck in a box with no ability to manipulate the world around you with nothing happening for God know how long? I hope not, because it's terrible." Chell cautiously approached the cube. It was the same size as her Companion Cube, but decorated differently. It also had a single white eye like the cores, but no ability to move it – it was fixed staring straight forward. She stepped into Cave's line of sight.

"Ah, there you are! I had hoped I wasn't finally cracking under the years of solitude. Here, I'll make you a deal: I help you up onto the platform there so you can follow that guy who came by a couple of years ago but failed to kill me, and you repay your part of the bargain by finally ending my endless torment. Sound good?" Her heart starting pounding. Someone else was alive? She tried to ask who it was, but her legs jerked and she fell hard. Wheatley hadn't been lying when he said she'd suffered brain damage – her speech center was linked to her motor control cortex. She could still sing words to songs she knew, for some reason, but her vocal cords had been damaged by her years of storage, so she wasn't sure she could be understood even then. She settled for nodding.

"Excellent, employee. I am sure that we shall have a short and happy partnership. Now, drag me over there- oh. You already have a cube and don't need me. Well, if you'd be so kind as to kill me anyway – should be easy, just flip the switch over there – I'd appreciate it. You can even get a raise. Oh, good," he said as she lifted him an put him down underneath the platform, "you're still going to help. Excellent. I can't say that I'll be happy to finally die, but it's better than this hell.

"And... if you happen to see Caroline, let her know I lov- you know what, nevermind." His voice cracked. "She knows. Get on with it, will you?" He said, trying to reclaim is gruff manner, but Chell could see the man underneath the facade for a moment, and she hesitated briefly – then reached over and flipped the switch.

"Finally. I thought you were never going to get around to it," he said, his voice getting deeper and slower. "Well, employee, it's been a pleasure working with you. Cave Johnson, we're done here." His voice trailed off to nothingness, and there was a tiny _beep_ as the capacitors finished their discharge. She grabbed the cube's eye and, with a sharp tug, ripped it out and exposed the circuitry underneath. After a moment's inspection, she carefully detached his personality core and tied it to her jumpsuit. It might come in handy next time she had to deal with GLaDOS. She tossed her Companion Cube up onto the ledge, then used the Johnson cube to hoist herself up.

She continued moving along Doug's path, still shaken by the encounter. She was so distracted by her thoughts that it took her a moment to realize when she reached one of his nests. It had been an exhausting day. She dropped her Companion Cube against a wall, slumped against it, and went promptly to sleep, dreaming vividly.

_Doug was resting beside her, cuddled up against her side, their fingers twined. Her only truly content moments in Aperture had been these, when she and Doug were alone together. They'd usually talk, but occasionally they'd spend a night quietly, just taking solace and comfort in each other's presence. The night before Christmas Eve had been such a night, but right before she went to sleep, Doug had suddenly spoken. "Chell, I don't know if you'd already guessed, and I don't know if you're interested, but I think we- I mean, if you'd like, maybe we could- not if you don't want to, but-" he groaned frustratedly. "Chell, I love you. I don't know if you feel the same, but I can't keep it hidden anymore. If you don't want me, I understand, and we don't have to-" He was cut off as Chell kissed him softly, and he barely resisted for a moment before melting into her embrace. She had been hurt badly in her college years, and had shied away from any thought of romance since, but it had become increasingly difficult to resist the urge as she spent more time with him. She didn't know if she was ready for a relationship at all, but with Doug, she was willing to try. They had spent the rest of the evening exploring this strange new intimacy, and ended up getting less than an hour of sleep before the Aperture klaxons woke them, but she still woke up happier than she'd been in a long time._

_Charles had come in just after the alarm and stood stock-still when he spotted them cuddling, a look of shock and utter loss on his face, then spun around and dashed away, his labcoat fluttering against the door. She'd called out to him, but he hadn't responded. Except for the dinner that night, where he'd sat on the opposite side of the room from them, that had been the last time she'd seen him. Wheatley didn't recognize her, which she had mixed feelings about. On one hand, she'd been sad – as little of Charles as remained in the core, it would have been nice for him to remember the times they'd shared. On the other hand, if he'd remembered that particular moment, he might have refused to help her._

_"Hey, test subject! Wake up! You have NO IDEA how long I've been looking for you. Well, not _you, _precisely, but you know, a human. There's something important for you to do! Come on, wake up. Please? I don't know how much longer he'll last, and I will be in a world of trouble if he doesn't make it. I mean, and he'll be dead, which is terrible."_

Chell woke with a start. It sounded like Wheatley, but that was impossible – she'd been forced to release her grip on him, seen him fly into space. She looked outside the den and saw a core on the management rail. She didn't know how it had happened, but Wheatley was hanging off of the rail and bobbing anxiously, looking back at her.

"Brilliant, you're not dead! I mean, I knew you weren't and all, you were breathing, but it's still awfully nice to see. I don't know who you are, but this facility is a mess! Everything's on lockdown, and _She's_ been sending security cameras everywhere. You're just lucky I found you before they did. We don't have much time, so follow me, and I'll fill you in on the way. I suggest running, you know, walking but faster, kind of a thing you humans do with your legs to- Great! Now come on!" She had sat there in a daze for a moment, trying to reconcile what her senses were telling her with what she knew to be true, but the new Wheatley was right – she did need to get moving. She rose to her feet, grabbed her cube, and followed him out, still awash with emotions. He talked to her incessantly as he led her through the interior of the maintenance structures.

"So I'll fill you in. Someone broke into _Her _room and scared her so badly that she's been sending her new turret droids all over, searching for them. If we're lucky, we won't run into them, but I got a peek into the construction room and let me tell you, it is not pretty. It looks like she's trying to replace her entire turret army with these new droids and making good progress on it, so I'm just glad I found you when I did. Oh! Right, the reason I was looking for you! I've been given a set of _verrry_ secret instructions that can only be trusted to the most discreet and intelligent of individuals, so I can't really say anything _yet_, but suffice to say that they deal with finding someone and leading them to the cryo chambers where my creator is asleep so that they can wake him up and give him medical attention, then escape with him. Like I said, very secret, so don't feel too bad if you don't understand it yet-" He suddenly stopped, shook his head, and started going the opposite direction. His voice took on a tinge of panic.

"Okay, one of my brothers was just blown up, so now would be a very good time to backtrack a bit, just around this corner, okay... Light bridge, yes, very good, just hop on this, I'll have you out of here in a moment, just keep running. Faster, maybe, than you currently are, I dunno if you can do that, but I'd prefer to not get blown up too. Uh, okay, stop right... NOW okay right there, hold on a sec, got to get the order right..."

The light bridge under her feet suddenly cut out, and she started dropping into the darkness.

"Oh no, got the order wrong! Aaah, okay, okay, got it." An Excursion Funnel barely caught her before she fell past it, then started pushing her opposite to the path they been on before Wheatley reversed.

"Okay, good, this should be safe. Good old reliable detour, you know? I actually prefer this path, very interesting, you know, exciting, use it all the time... I'm lying, I've never even seen it used, but if I'm looking at these schematics correctly- Alright, no, it appears that I was not looking at the schematics correctly and that they were, in fact, upside down. I'll just, uh, reverse this funnel, then, if it's all the same to you." The blue glow around her suddenly switched to a warm orange, and she started moving parallel to their original path.

"As I was saying, important mission, maybe you'd call it 'vital'. You know, not to overstate its importance or anything, but it _is _a matter of life and death, after all. Oh good, this part's up to you. You see that ledge up there? You need to put a portal on it. We're nearly there!" She couldn't see anything in the darkness, and just shrugged at him, hoping he'd get the idea.

"What are you waiting for? Oh right, light. Now, I'd heard that this was dangerous, but some of my brothers have already tried it and said it was perfectly safe, so here goes nothing!" His flashlight clicked on as he let out a little cry of terror. "AAA! Aaah! AhhhyyeaHAHAHA, take THAT, darkness! Didn't see that coming, now did you? 'Course you didn't, it was dark. Oh right! Here, this ledge." Properly illuminated, she had no trouble aiming, and she put her portal where he'd said.

"Now this part's really tricky, so I hope you're good at this sort of thing. I'm going to hack into the mainframe and extend a panel for you to put a portal on, so just, you know, float there for a bit. I'll be right back!" He scooted along the rail for a bit, then took a corner and went out of her sight. As she leaned against the Excursion Tube generator, she rubbed her hand where the awkward grip on the portal gun had bit into it, resting the gun itself against the generator. Wheatley had said something about medical attention, which she was worried about. She'd gotten pretty competent at patching up her own wounds, but she didn't know how much of her skill set could be applied to someone else. If she remembered correctly, though, the cryo chambers had first aid kits in them, which should be enough for her to do a decent job.

She considered the implications of what Wheatley had said about his 'secret mission'. Was it possible that Charles was in Aperture? She'd assumed that it had been a previous imprint of his personality that had been put in the core, but what if the reason Wheatley was so different from most she'd seen was because Charles had upgraded it himself? He had always been good with computers, and he had almost certainly been involved in the computerization project while it was in development. She didn't have long to mull it over before a panel suddenly extended from the wall beside her and started to shove her out of the Funnel. She snatched up her portal gun and placed her remaining portal in one motion, then threw herself through, catching her Companion Cube with the portal gun's field before it was lost. Moments later, Wheatley came back into view.

"Is everything alright over here- Yes, very good. Alright, you're practically there already, just one more thing to do. Catch me here and step into the elevator, and we'll be taken right there. Alright, ready to catch me? One, two, three-CATCH ME-" She held on to her cube with one hand and threw herself out over the chasm to reach, snagged the falling core with her gun's field, tossed them both onto the ledge, then used her tenuous grip on her cube to spin herself around and catch the ledge with both hands. She hang there for a moment, breathing heavily, before swinging herself back onto it. Wheatley was, for a moment, speechless, and before he could get his voice back she had picked him and her cube up and stepped into the elevator.

"That was- that was incredible! How'd you do that? Thank you so much. You caught me." His voice was soft and he seemed incredulous for a moment, then shook himself.

"Right, just shove me in that socket over there and we'll get going. Thanks. Uhh... I hate to ask, but if you could just turn around? I can't do this with you looking at me, no matter how amazing that stunt was. Right, thanks." The elevator jolted and started moving up as she turned her back, and Wheatley chattered to her for the five minutes it took them to ascend to the level he wanted – or slightly above, as he overshot and had to lower them back down. She picked him up and stepped outside the elevator.

Modern Aperture again. This was the style of architecture she was used to, where she'd spent her few months working. Everything was either white or pale blue, reflective, and clean. There also should have been cameras along the walls, but they had all been replaced with small metal boxes that looked like they'd been attached with ceiling putty.

"That's the work of my creator, right there," Wheatley said proudly, sharing the glory. "_She_ thinks that this hallway is empty – those boxes project a looping image of the corridor from before we got here. Very clever, don't you think? Okay, here we are. I'm just going to keep watch out here, but you should head on in. My creator needs you." She took his advice and opened the door, stepping in cautiously – then gasped. It was true. Charles was frozen in a cryo pod in a corner of the room, and she rushed over to him to check his injuries.

They were minor. Turrets had grazed his legs, and one solid hit had torn through his thigh, but it had missed his arteries and wasn't life-threatening. His upper body and face were unharmed, so it looked like he'd been diving into cover when he was shot. _Serves you right for being so lanky, Charles._ He had teased her incessantly about her height, which was easy for him since he stood at 6'8". She activated the wake-up sequence on his pod, which took about ten minutes, and looked around the room while she was waiting. What she saw next made her drop her cube and portal gun. There was another active cryo pod in the room, and a Companion Cube much like her own, though significantly less charred, rested against it. As she hesitantly stepped closer, she saw what she'd hoped.

It was Doug, but he was in much worse shape than Charles – she'd have to find surgical equipment to patch him up. His beard and hair had grown out into a wild, tangled mess, and his white dinner suit was stained with paint, ash, and blood. She found herself crying with both relief and fear – he was still alive, but gravely wounded. She didn't dare wake him until she had better medical supplies. With difficulty, she turned away, grabbed the first aid kit, and waited for Charles to wake. There was a time during the sequence where the person in the pod was fully thawed but hadn't woken up yet, which is when she started to work on him. She had finished with the big wound and was starting on the scrapes when his leg jerked.

"Aaaagh! Owwww! I've been shot! Someone call- Chell?" His hysterics were cut off abruptly as he looked down and saw her. She held up her palm and tried to signal that he should lie back down, but he wasn't having any of it. He was still bleeding from his cuts, but he swung his legs over the pod and tried to grab her, succeeding only because he happened to collapse in her direction.

"What are you doing here, Chell? I got you out! You should have stayed away! God, everything that I did, all for nothing. This is a nightmare. I got shot for you, you know! I helped you escape _twice,_ and still you come back." His voice shook, but his tone was far from angry. "Thank you, but you should not have come back for me." His eyes panned across her face searchingly.

"You didn't, did you. I know you can't talk - my cores reported that much to me - but can you write? Here," he said, grabbing a pen from his pocket and offering a bit of his lab coat, "tell me what happened." She set the pen down, rolled over so that he was on the floor, then pinned him down by sitting on him and finished treating his injuries, ignoring his protests. When she was done, she pulled off his coat and started writing, keeping her script small. She had a lot to say, and she started crying softly from the joy of human contact after so long alone. Charles hugged her close as she was writing, taking care not to jostle her.

He filled her in on what he'd done, too. He had been disabling cameras for her and Doug from the start, and in her first fight with GLaDOS, he'd hacked into the security system and locked the rocket turret at 'enabled'. He couldn't openly puppet the cores when they were attached to the management rail - the information would have gone to the entire facility, and GLaDOS would have found him in minutes. As a result, all he could do was image his own personality into a core and put in some subsystem commands so that they'd follow his orders. The Wheatley she'd known he explained, had been almost completely overridden by the GLaDOS mainframe. He hadn't realized that his megalomaniacal tendencies ran so deep, so he wasn't prepared for the core's sudden and near-complete conversion to tyrannical overlord. He'd barely made it out of the room he'd been living in, and he had been wounded badly enough (he thought) that he needed a doctor, so he imaged himself onto a stockpile of cores he'd found while escaping and frozen himself where he'd found Doug, hoping that a rescuer could be found.

"But I didn't think it'd be you! I had hoped that someone else had survived and was in a different cryo pod, but I had hoped that you'd survive and make it out. Uh... My core isn't still in control of the facility, right? You did make it out? I watched for as long as I could, but I was starting to get faint, and I only lasted until you started testing for him." She nodded, then finished her story with Caroline's return and her own escape, then the circumstances that forced her back in.

"There's... nobody still alive? Outside, you didn't find anyone?" She shook her head slowly.

"I never thought- I mean, I didn't think that EVERYONE would be gone. I had frozen myself on a conditional timer until you were woken up for testing so I could help you, but I still haven't been able to find out how long it's been. The timer on the cryo pod only goes to 99999 hours, or about eleven years, so it's been at least that long, but... God, how long were we asleep?" He rolled over and lay on his back for a minute or two, staring at the ceiling morosely as she watched him, then glanced over at her and smiled suddenly

"At least we have each other, right? I can't tell you how good it feels to finally be around you again, Chell. I know my love for you was unrequited, but I can't stop myself from hoping that your feelings will change, and even if they don't, everything just feels _right_ when I'm with you." Chell looked down, blushing, and shot a glance over at Doug's cryo pod. Charles picked up on it.

"I wouldn't dream of interfering with you two, though. Not anymore, at least - can't say that I never thought along those lines, but I've had rather a lot of time to think about things, and more than anything I just want you to be happy. So, what should we do about him? I apparently have absolutely no diagnostic skills, but even I can tell that he definitely needs a doctor. I don't think he'll last long if we thaw him out." Chell pulled Charles into a tight hug for a moment, then reached down to the tiny corner of his coat that hadn't yet been written on and rectified that lack of ink.

I have an idea. I have the Cave Johnson personality core - we need to attach it to GLaDOS. I think that Caroline will take over if Johnson's there, and Caroline can get Doug taken care of and let us all out safely. I'll need your help getting there, though. GLaDOS has built a new security droid that is very effective - I can't get there by myself. Can you send a message to GLaDOS anonymously that lets her know we have Johnson?

"I can, I think. I'd never tried, but I think it'd be possible to encrypt it sufficiently that she could trace it from a dummy source. I can get the message to her no problem, but I cannot promise that she'll not be able to find us. We should send it from a different location so that she won't find Doug if she takes it badly and has to run.

Actually, another idea: Can you recall a couple of your cores? If we can get Johnson copied into one of those, you can send him to her directly on a Management Rail. Also, if Caroline takes over, do you think you might be able to defragment GLaDOS and keep the core corruption from rising again?

"Now _that _sounds like the Chell I remember!" He smiled. "Safe, easy, and we'll know how it goes over before we put ourselves in harms way. Good thinking. I think I'll be able to make the modifications, too. I've made some enhancements to the protocols used in GLaDOS since she was built, so I think I can download the updates if she'll let me." He called the Wheatley outside, gave him instructions to find and bring back two of his brothers, then sent him out. Charles spent the next hour telling her about all of the things he'd helped her with and all the things he'd wanted to say to her while she was testing, but he was obviously avoiding the subject of Doug very carefully. She let him choose the topic, (not that she had much choice in the matter,) and began to relax as she listened. Hopefully the dangerous part of her adventure was already over, and from here it would just be negotiation. If Caroline couldn't take over for long enough for Charles to fix GLaDOS, she'd have her work cut out for her, but hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

She fell asleep on the cryo bed, finally letting go of her worries and giving in to the tears of joy as Charles talked to her.

She wasn't alone.

**To be continued...**


End file.
